How to customize storybook (custom theme and layout option)?

Hi devs,

In this article , I am going to discuss about how can we customize our storybook which includes -

Custom theme ( dark or light )
Custom layout ## How to setup custom background colour with theme ? I am assuming you have done basic setup of storybook. If you have then in your project structure file named preview.tsx or preview.ts will be present where we will all customization code , if this file not present then you can create it. And second file you need create name as CustomTheme.ts which having content as below


import { create } from '@storybook/theming';
import logo from './my-app-logo.svg';
export default create({
  base: 'light',
  brandTitle: 'My app name',
  brandUrl: 'https://myapp.com',
  brandImage: logo,
  appContentBg: 'white',
  appBorderColor: 'grey',
  appBorderRadius: 4,
});

After that create one file named as manager.ts if it is not present on your .storybook work directory and this

import { addons } from '@storybook/addons';

import CustomTheme from './CustomTheme';

addons.setConfig({
  theme: CustomTheme,
});

Now lets move to preview.tsx file , we will start defining some configuration as below with withThemeProvider variable.


const Theme = {
  LIGHT: 'light',
  DARK: 'dark',
};

const customBackgrounds = {
  values: [
    {
      name: Theme.LIGHT,
      value: 'white',
    },
    {
      name: Theme.DARK,
      value: '#333333',
    },
  ],
};

const parameters = {
  backgrounds: customBackgrounds,
  viewport: {
  },
};


const getThemeColor = (theme: string) => {
  const { value } = parameters.backgrounds.values.find(({ name }) => name === theme);
  return value;
};

const withThemeProvider = (Story, storyContext) => {
  const { globals } = storyContext;
  const currentLayout: string = globals.layout;
  const currentFont: BackyardFonts = globals.font;
  const currentBackGround = globals.backgrounds?.value ?? 'white';
  const currentTheme: any = currentBackGround === 'white' ? Theme.LIGHT : Theme.DARK;
  const currentBackground: string = getThemeColor(currentTheme);

  useEffect(() => {
    document.body.setAttribute('backgroundColor', currentBackground);
  }, [currentBackground, currentFont]);

  return (
    <ThemeProvider
      theme={currentTheme}
      font={currentFont}
    >
      <GlobalStyles />
      <Story />
    </ThemeProvider>
  );
};

const decorators = [withThemeProvider];

After adding these configuration you can change background colour with storybook theme.

How to setup custom layout ?

For setting up storybook with custom layout you need to following setup given below -

Defining custom layout which is going to appear as option in storybook


const Layout = {
  DEFAULT: 'default',
  WITH_L1: 'Layout 1',
  WITH_L2: 'Layout 2',
};

Now we need add layout as option using global parameter


const globalTypes = {
  layout: {
    description: 'Layouts',
    defaultValue: Layout.DEFAULT,
    toolbar: {
      title: 'Layout',
      items: [
        { value: Layout.DEFAULT, title: 'Default' },
        { value: Layout.WITH_L1, title: 'Layout 1' },
        { value: Layout.WITH_L2, title: 'Layout 2' },
      ],
      dynamicTitle: true,
    },
  },
};

Now we to do some slight changes in withThemeProvider

const withThemeProvider = (Story, storyContext) => {
  const { globals } = storyContext;
  const currentLayout: string = globals.layout;
  const currentBackground: string = getThemeColor(currentTheme);

  return (
    <>
      {currentLayout === Layout.DEFAULT && <Story />}
      {currentLayout === Layout.WITH_L1 && (
        <L1>
          <Story />
        </L1>
      )}
      {currentLayout === Layout.WITH_SIDEBAR && (
        <L2>
          <Story />
        </L2>
      )}
    </>
  );
};

You can define layouts as component anywhere and export it in preview.tsx file -

const L1 = ({ children }) => (
  <StyledRootWrapper>
    <StyledNavContainer />
    <StyledChildren>{children}</StyledChildren>
  </StyledRootWrapper>
);

const L2 = ({ children }) => (
  <StyledRootWrapper>
    <StyledNavContainer />
    <StyledChildren>{children}</StyledChildren>
  </StyledRootWrapper>
);

Whole code snippet look like for preview.tsx -

import { ThemeProvider } from '@backyard/react';
import { GlobalStyles } from './Container';
import { L1, L2 } from './customLayout';
import { useEffect } from 'react';
import {
  customBackgrounds,
  Layout,
  Theme,
} from './configurations';
import React from 'react';

const parameters = {
  backgrounds: customBackgrounds,
};

const getThemeColor = (theme: string) => {
  const { value } = parameters.backgrounds.values.find(({ name }) => name === theme);
  return value;
};

const withThemeProvider = (Story, storyContext) => {
  const { globals } = storyContext;
  const currentLayout: string = globals.layout;
  const currentBackGround = globals.backgrounds?.value ?? 'white';
  const currentTheme: any = currentBackGround === 'white' ? Theme.LIGHT : Theme.DARK;
  const currentBackground: string = getThemeColor(currentTheme);

  useEffect(() => {
    document.body.setAttribute('backgroundColor', currentBackground);
  }, [currentBackground, currentFont]);

  return (
      <ThemeProvider
      theme={currentTheme}>
      {currentLayout === Layout.DEFAULT && <Story />}
      {currentLayout === Layout.WITH_L1 && (
        <L1>
          <Story />
        </L1>
      )}
      {currentLayout === Layout.WITH_SIDEBAR && (
        <L2>
          <Story />
        </L2>
      )}
    </ThemeProvider>
  );
};

const globalTypes = {
  layout: {
    description: 'Layouts',
    defaultValue: Layout.DEFAULT,
    toolbar: {
      title: 'Layout',
      items: [
        { value: Layout.DEFAULT, title: 'Default' },
        { value: Layout.WITH_L1, title: 'Layout 1' },
        { value: Layout.WITH_L2, title: 'Layout 2' },
      ],
      dynamicTitle: true,
    },
  },
};


const decorators = [ withThemeProvider];

export { decorators, globalTypes, parameters };

After that completing these steps you can find option dropdown at top of storybook toolbar.

Vishesh Tiwari @vishesh-tiwari

How to customize storybook (custom theme and layout option)?

How to setup custom layout ?

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